One of Benjamin’s main issues with a reproduction of a piece of art is that this copy does not have the connection to the artwork’s “presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (220). For me, this argument seemed to be placing too much emphasis on the exact history and time, and overlooking other reasons why people look at art and want reproductions of it. If you are reproducing something, especially a famous work of art, you will know the approximate time period of when the work was produced, and oftentimes, a signifier of a piece of art is that it is “timeless” and therefore would not need to be bound by the constraints of when it was created. If it is truly great art, we should be able to appreciate it no matter when it was created. Also, comparing a reproduction to the real thing would prove as an interesting comparison to see how the elements have affected the piece of art, especially if it is a statue or something outside. For example, many great Renaissance paintings have dulled over the years and were more recently restored to their original glory, but people were used to the faded colors from before. Comparing the old and the new would help students understand how works of art get damaged over time, and by making reproductions of both old and new available, the public could choose which color scheme they preferred. Art is subjective, and memory is unreliable, so why not have the ability and the choice to remember something the way you choose? I found Benjamin’s attitude to be snobby especially when he said that art becomes less valued when it is made available to more people. Isn’t the point of art to expose it to people so they will appreciate it and prompt new thoughts or ideas? If someone lives in a remote area, how often will they be able to see works of art, compared to someone who lives in New York City? Shouldn’t everyone be able to have some access to art, even if it is not the original?
I wonder what Benjamin would think of Photoshop, a program that can transform a picture into individual pixels so that it can be manipulated so precisely, it can be difficult to tell which is the original and which is the manipulation. He would probably be apalled, but I am just amazed at all the things one small program can accomplish. Our technology has evolved so much since this article was written, and those advancements are almost always portrayed in a positive light (think of how big cell phones were 10 years ago) that his arguments (as well as Aldous Huxley’s speech against technology in the footnotes) provide a change in perspective to challenge these views.
Carolyn, I’m with you on the photoshop thing. But I’m not so sure that Benjamin would be appalled by it. I didn’t necessarily read his critique on photography as an indictment of the form, but rather as an illustration of how the very act of mass production creates art while at the same time divorces itself from the “aura” of the original image. There’s probably an interesting discussion in here somewhere that revolves around recognition of an artistic form as merely that (photography), and then interpretations of that form (photoshop, pixellated manipulation, etc.) as a layering transformation of it to something almost wholly different and pallatable (sp?).
But, as with so many things in this class, I have no idea what I’m saying. See you in class in a few hours.